Southern Cross Route

The Southern Cross Route is the name given to the commercial passenger air route connecting Australia and the United Kingdom via the United States. The term was coined by British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines in 1949 to refer to its new trans-pacific route from Australia to North America. The name was chosen by BCPA in honour of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's historic 1928 flight in the aircraft Southern Cross.

In 1954, Qantas acquired BCPA and expanded the term's definition as it also expanded the route, even trademarking it for a number of years, as the official name of its air routes connecting Australia and the United Kingdom via the United States. Qantas would go on to pair up the Southern Cross route with its existing famous counterpart route the "Kangaroo Route" connecting Australia and the United Kingdom via the Eastern Hemisphere to form its newly titled "Round the World" service.